Institute for Environmental Security

IES People

Chad Briggs

Chad Briggs holds a Ph.D. in political science from Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada, and an M.A. in international relations from Limerick University in Ireland. He is currently the Minerva Chair of Energy and Environmental Security at Air University (US Air Force), and a principal consultant with GlobalInt LLC.

After attending gymnasium in Norway, Briggs moved to Eastern Europe, and studied at Eotvos Lorand University in Budapest, Hungary in the early 1990s. He worked as a political consultant for the Hungarian Free Democratic party in 1993-94, then returned to the US where he worked with the US Department of Commerce and USAID on environmental projects. His government experience also includes as a budget and policy director for the state of Wisconsin, and as Senior Advisor to the US Department of Energy. In addition to holding a post as a geography research fellow at University College London, he has taught at California State University Fullerton, and as a Fulbright professor to Corvinus University in Budapest and the German-American Fulbright Commission in Berlin. Dr. Briggs is also currently an Adjunct Research Professor of Geography at Carleton University.

In 1995 he began research on the links between US foreign policy and environmental security, particularly the use of scientific data in determining policy. His doctoral work compared dam construction projects in North America, Scandinavia and Eastern Europe, including the Bos-Nagymaros dam between Hungary and Slovakia. He then went on to research the environmental security risks of toxicological studies of perchlorate.

Dr. Briggs' current research includes development of scenario and risk assessment methods for environmental and energy security, including strategic and operational planning for the military. He specializes in understanding complex systems and cascading risk impacts, translating scientific data into security and intelligence assessments. Dr. Briggs has also worked on post-conflict reconstruction policies, including vulnerability and environmental health assessments around the world.